Western Colorado, Cont.

After doing the Gardens, we sipped - and bought - some wine at one of the many wineries in the Palisades area, a few miles northeast of GJ.

Later, we strolled Main Street and viewed the Art on the Corner sculptures, some of which are permanent, some not.  Below, the ant is eyeballing the giant apple core with a greedy look.

Leader of the pack!!!

Shed' be even faster if both feet could reach the pedals.

Western Colorado Botanical Gardens

Havasu friends Terry and Lisa joined us in Grand Junction, CO for a couple days.  We all toured the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens, which are located in the City, near the Colorado River.

Is the bear contemplating having Terry and Lisa for lunch?

Cute sculptures in the kid's garden.

Olympic Village, Park City, UT

Site of the 2002 Winter Olympics, it is now used for training Olympians and is a major tourist attraction.  Adventuresome visitors can do some of the things the pros do, bobsledding for one.  There's a good museum highlighting many of the past and present greats, and the local and national history of the event.  Below, you see some of the ski outfits worn over the years.  The outfit modeled on the far right is the latest style in casual after-ski wear.

The horizontal cross is actually a skier doing acrobatics before splashing into the pool.  They slopes are sprayed with water before just before the skier starts down.  The pool is placid until a skier is coming down the slope, then the water is agitated with water jets or compressed air.  I assume this makes for a softer landing, fewer injuries, maybe more like snow.

I'm gonna give the guy (or gal) below a 9.5, went a little crooked on the landing.

Below is the snowboard acrobatics area.  Again, everything is sprayed with water before the launch.  Jumpers land on this huge inflated balloon/mattress.  The person in the air (middle left) is kinda hard to distinguish due to the background.

Jordanelle State Park, UT

The Park is about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City, near the town of Park City, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics.  Our campsite overlooks Jordanelle Reservoir.

Medium rare steak + single malt scotch + idyllic setting = Happy Camper.

Museum of Idaho

This is an infrared image of Trish and me.  Note the big smiles.  Would it be untactful to point out that the taller person seems to have a considerably larger brain?  Probably.  Forget I mentioned it.

The Museum of Idaho in Idaho Falls has a good NASA exhibit and, of course, local history exhibits, both well done with lots of interactive displays for children.

Trish and I rode this cycle thingy, one of several devices used on the space station to work out, trying to counteract the negative physical impact of zero gravity.  You're strapped in so you don't float away, and as you pedal, it goes in circles like a centrifuge.  If you're prone to dizziness, better skip this one.

Above and below, a typical dry goods store/drugstore of about 100 years ago - about the size of an average bedroom.  It bears an uncanny resemblance to the stores I frequented in Egypt in the early 80s.  These pix were taken in the Idaho history exhibit portion of the Museum.

Idaho Falls

 Idaho Falls, population 60K, is located in the southeastern part of the state, about 75 miles due west of Grand Teton NP.  57% of the people are Mormon so it comes as no big surprise that there's a magnificent Mormon Temple here, shown in the picture below, apparently sprouting out of my hat.  Indeed, their temples are magnificent, built to some of the most demanding specs ever.  I toured one in Portland, briefly open to the public just after construction was completed.  Impressive!

The falls are man-made, providing a 19' drop to power low-head hydro turbines.  Low-head hydro dams have several advantages over massive concrete dams.  They're easier, quicker and cheaper to build; silt buildup isn't a major problem; and they don't require mountainous or deep canyon locations.  They can be built just about anywhere there's adequate water volume.

This is the Snake River, and the City has done a great job of making it an attractive centerpiece.  There are paved walking/cycling trails on both sides, lots of grass, trees, topiary and sculptures.

 

The Best Laid Schemes.....

T: The water pump isn't working.  Are the valves set to 'dry camping'?

Me: Yes, and the fresh water tank is 3/4 full.

T: Well, it's not working.

Me:  I'm not gonna mess with it now, will check it out when we get to our next campground.  I'll reconnect the city water hose for now and fill a water jug to manually flush the toilet until we hook up to city water at tonight's campground.

T:  Okay.

We're breaking camp in Ketchum, ID.  Next stop: a one-nighter at a campground 20 miles east of Idaho Falls (IF) on the road to Grand Teton NP, where we plan to spend 4 nights.  Later, at the IF campground, I check hoses, valves, filters; everything looks fine.  

Diagnosis: death from unknown causes.  No evidence of - nor reason to suspect - foul play by a party or parties unknown.  Suicide is strongly suspected but no note is found.  

So, we need a new water pump.  It's under warranty, just need to find a RV service shop that can do the job while we wait.  Trish gets online and finds a place in IF that does warranty work on Grand Design RVs - a lucky find because precious few RV shops are authorized to do warranty work.  Many states have only a couple factory-authorized service shops.  Yes, very lucky find.

Next morning we return to IF, arrive at RV shop, and ask the service manager to check out the water pump the same day.  RV service shops are typically booked up several weeks advance, and drop-ins screw up the schedule.  He reluctantly agreed, but said he didn't know when they'd get to it, would likely be after lunch. We sat around for 5 hours, finally pulled out of the shop at 2:30 PM with a new water pump.

Our best laid schemes have gone askew.  We have to spend the night in IF, which means we won't beat the weekend rush to the first come-first serve campground in Grand Teton NP.  We decide to bag Grand Teton and spend 6 nights in IF.  Never had a burning desire to tour IF, but here we are, ready to sample Idaho Falls' greatest attractions, which will no doubt blow us away.  Oh Boy!

"The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew," is an excerpt from To a Mouse, a poem by Robert Burns, 1785.

More recently (1937), John Steinbeck quoted Mr Burns, and titled a novella, Of Mice and Men